Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Recently Read: The Sherlockian

My mom has been trying to get me to read this book for about a year now, and I finally picked it up. I'm glad I did because I found this book to be a great fall mystery. For reason, fall always makes me want to read mysteries and Holmes in particular.

This book alternates between two stories. The story of Harold, a modern day member of the Baker Street Irregulars, a club of the most elite Sherlockians, and the story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who has become fed up with the attention Holmes has been receiving and attempts to solve a string of murders himself. The Baker Street Irregulars and many historians are in search of Doyle's missing diary, but when the Sherlockian who claims to have found the diary ends up dead, the game is really afoot.

I really enjoyed the dual story lines in this novel and the way they overlapped and intertwined. I thought Moore did an excellent job of making the historical characters in this book accurate as well as the time period. I really enjoyed reading from Doyle's perspective, and thought his personality and narrative was spot on. I liked the mix of fact and fiction in this book as well as the crazy world of the Sherlockians (who actually exist!)

After reading this book I immediately wanted to pick up biographies of all the literary figures in this book, Bram Stoker, Arthur, and Oscar Wilde (who has a small cameo). I'm on the look-out for great biographies of authors so let me know if you have read any that you like. I'm also in the mood to read some more Sherlock Holmes stories but I've got so many things I want to read before the end of the year! It's not required that you have any previous knowledge of the Sherlock stories before reading this book, but if you do, you will get more out of it I think. Also, be aware that this book does discuss the solutions to a few Holmes stories so if you haven't read them you may be spoiled for a few Holmes stories.

If you like Sherlock Holmes or Arthur Conan Doyle you should pick this one up. It's so nice to sit with a warm drink and a mystery on a rainy fall day and this is two fast paced mysteries in one. I'm interested to see what Moore will write in the future since this is his debut novel. I would love for him to write more books with literary figure characters.

Let me know if you have read any other books like this that have authors as characters, and any of your favorite author biographies!